One of the world's neoliberal capitalist thinkers, Oprah Winfrey, no doubt captured our hearts, but mostly the upper and middle-class young white women who for some valid or invalid reasons have problems about themselves. There is already an endless supply of self-love gurus ready to inform you that what you are doing is totally wrong. Correct me if I'm wrong, 'the real minority' of people on this planet might have been running out of legitimate issues, so the positive-thinking movement focused on the 'self' or individual to further move them away from the reality, and for the profit of course. I mean how much are those life-changing books and how many people are hopelessly dying to get out of their depressing situations?
However, just as positive thinking may be damaging or useless, incessantly ranting about the state of the system is unlikely to change your situation and the world either. There is the clash between the altruists out-there and the in-here western individualism. 'Do the change' or 'be the change'. The battle between structural and personal transformation and those simply lacking any of those.
I turned to Oprah, self-help, religion, Hare Krishna, new age nonsense, secular spirituality, you name it, years back when I was unemployed, desperate and overall feeling crap about my situation. I was an idiot believing that changing myself and feeling good would change my situation and the world. And that I do have a choice.
For those who have never experienced in their sheltered molly-coddled privileged lives that in-your-face borderline poverty and parental neglect, for your information, the current world issues and circumstances have been deliberately brought into people's lives. And no amount of self-love can dismantle the structural injustice, soul-crushing effects of colonization, racial inequality and unsustainable economic model that continue to oppress the working-class, the vulnerable and 'the real majority' of the world.
I simply cannot just transform the world by thinking positively nor can I fix my bad day by radiating negative vibes. My mindset and attitude do matter for sure. If you think that people don't have the power in making your life a heaven or a hell, then try to work in a toxic work environment with rampant sexism and racism, and with an abusive power-tripping boss day in and day out. Live with an abusive partner, or deal with those who are in authority who are abusing their power to insist what they want at the expense of others. There's no amount of quick web search about mindfulness and sleepless nights of ranting inside your head can simply do the trick.
Oprah and other western Gandhi quoters continue to reinforce the focus on 'the individual' hiding the role of socio-economic and political structure in our lives. They made you believe that 'it gets better' if you just sit there, breathe and be the change. Meanwhile, corporations and institutions engaged in unethical practices and are insensitive to the caring of their own people, now take advantage of this 'look good' humanitarian projects and other forms of pathological altruism paraded on the office walls.
But just as the spread of the 'be the change' evangelists is becoming alarming, it does not mean you let yourself be occupied by the stream of trolls and negative thinkers to balance things out. If the positive-thinking feel-good people cannot change the world, then the toxic cynical people won't be able to either. Perhaps 'doing' and 'being' don't have to be mutually exclusive, and personal wellbeing is not left to isolation and total blindness to the realities of the outside world. I don't know anymore. If only there's such a thing as balance or the possibility of going in between, but given the nature of humans and their perpetual obsession with the extreme side of things, where do we go now?
That is one hell of an accurate deconstruction of neoliberal spirituality; or spiritual materialism, or New Age woo-woo.
The pragmatist side of me would say that this is where Kenny is correct and an emerging Integral culture would need both: real personal transformation alongside structural change rather than the current sleight of hand of using woo-woo as a replacement for real necessary structural change.
I really have covered all the needed and necessary changes within my New Earth Commons map with the needed Four Pillars which still offers as many people as much choice as possible as far as anyone choosing how to live.
But that's the pragmatist side of me. I recently had a house guest who is apparently tapped into some very 'hi up' characters and he told me that it's money itself that is the problem on this planet. If that's true ( I don't know that it is) then nothing short of galactic war will solve any of these issues:(
I'd also add that the multicultural experiment in the west has replaced Satan with Hindu psychology as the problem and solution to evil. It's a gambit I'm very much opposed to and although I'm a long-term meditator and recent yoga practitioner I reject this aspect of it wholesale. I'll try and clarify what I meant here. Neoliberalism juxtaposed to mass immigration from the east has overtaken traditional notions of what evil is. Evil under this influx from the east aided and abetted by the department of spiritual propaganda has cherry-picked a few schools of eastern philosophy which teach that God doesn't exist and that most every problem a human has is due to their own consciousness.
The fact of the matter is this spiritual position is a minority even in the east so to promote here to suit the agendas of the capitalist class is pure disingenuousness and societal manipulation. I hope this helps flesh out my thought on that clumsy statement:)
I'm on a roll: I can't tell you how much it sickens me that the archons who run cities like Vancouver make this great pretense about trees and sorting organic waste while their policies treat most of humanity like garbage! That pretty well tells me everything I need to know about who these archons are.
ahh the rush to change the world. I usually don't fall for big guys taking the moral high ground. It must be my mistrust of the system and diabolic human nature.
Don't give me any surprise visits por favor, as I might need to hide first my woo-woo neoliberal books, but you know we change as we get older and less dumb, and so the choice of books too.
Tell him about the crypto revolution and the new problem lol.
You have 2 choices: Act or Not Act.
If you Act, you have 2 results: Success or Failure.
If you are Successful, you have 2 choices: Continue or Stop.
If you Continue, you'll have 2 results: Success or Failure.
If you Fail, you have 2 choices: Try Again or Stop.
If you Stop, you have 0 choices.
It's a never-ending cycle, until you choose to let it end. We all get the choice to live in the world that exists as-is and let other people act on our behalf (or against us), or we can act on our own. Nothing is easy. Nothing is given.
We are burdened with the choice of action or inaction. When we act, there is a personal responsibility associated with it. When we don't act, we can easily point the blame at others because our personal investment is not there.
By no means do any of us individually have the entire burden resting on our individual shoulders (and we should never let ourselves feel that way). We do, however, get the choice to "be the change" we want to see in the world and act toward achieving the change that we want to see.
The challenge will always be that our change may conflict with another person or entity's version of change. Then we may be working to make a change in a world that does not want to be changed, or does not know that it wants to be changed.
... woah, I went on quite a rant, sorry if I went off-topic or missed the topic alltogether ...
Echoing some of the other comments, I agree: Always make sure that you're happy individually ... and when you decide that you want to change the world, know that you're not alone and find like-minded people to help support you (and support each other).
The only way you change the world, society, or whatever external, is by trying to improve yourself and being aware of your own ignorance, at least primarily. Our common enemy, the institutions created by the controllers to oppress and exploit people, are fundamentally an expression of the collective health of humanity. If we are made up of extremely sick individuals, the world at large will be the product of unhealthy traits and its consequences.
Very true.
Well said, yes you cannot change the world by thinking positively. All you need to do is at least keep yourself happy. Thanks for sharing @diabolika
True words.
Personal transformation and "being the change" is step one...
Step two is collaborating with others who are on step one to build a better system.
Step three, make the old system obsolete.
I agree.
What is the most beautiful spring season when we wake up
Something wonderful and wonderful picture done well
This post is selected and upvotedhi,@diabilika by free-upvote bot @topbooster
Lot to be needs to change,you are certainly bringing new revolution,no doubt in this.you are the iron lady of this community.
Yeah but...
I'm not wrong to think that all this time, you're clearly one of those people... or trolls.
Of course I am. It's taken this long to figure out?
Since you like models of thought around change, maybe you'll like "effective altruism" and "altruistic egoism."
Then it sucks to be you. Ok I suggest you read my last post then I'll appreciate if you troll somewhere else. Bye!
I read your last post. I actually put a lot of thought into my lens/mirror comment to be economical with words to hint at my meaning without being too confrontational. Okay. Well, more words it is on the last post.
You might at least find effective altruism and altruistic egoism worth a look - that isn't a troll btw.
In the meantime, I'll respect your wishes and go. kthnxbai
Good evening, @eturnerx wanted to be thankful for the gesture you had with my cousin @proelite, my cousin wanted thank with a post but you have some problems, because as you will see in Venezuela the electricity failure is constant and for the reason could end of post in ingles the what did one but in spanish version but already you are doing one in english
Here I leave the link of the Spanish version that made you
https://steemit.com/spanish/@proelite/cuando-la-vida-te-trae-una-sorpresa-inesperada
Wow, truly diabolical.